The Spider's Web, Rewritten
by ColorfullyKalene
Summary: This is a tragic alternate ending to The Spider's Web. I wrote this as a gift for Inuyasha Fandom Secret Santa on Tumblr. My recipient said she loved Inuyasha and Kagome and that she loved sad. She said I could emotionally destroy her. So I did my best!


**The Spider's Web, Rewritten by Kalene A.**

As she leaped towards Inuyasha, tears streaming down her face, she didn't notice the spider head coming at her. In an instant, it has sunk its fangs into her ankle, and, just like that, she had been poisoned, too.

By the time she reached Inuyasha, her body had gone limp and they both crashed to the floor together. Nazuna and Shippo quickly dragged them inside the room and shut the door. Myoga got Nazuna to plunge the tessiega into the door to buy them some time.

They were safe for now, but they all knew they were still in real trouble as Kagome and Inuyasha laid on the floor beside each other, both nearly paralyzed from the venom. Myoga and Nazuna were gravely quiet, while Shippo filled the room with the sound of his wailing.

"Myoga!" Shippo cried out, "You're a flea; you can suck the poison out! What are you waiting for!"

"That is true," said Myoga, "but the spider head's venom is stronger than most. I'm afraid I won't be able to save both of them."

"But you can suck the venom out of one of us," Inuyasha said, startling everyone.

"This is also true, Master Inuyasha," he replied, "but which one of you would you have me save?"

"Inuyasha, of course," Kagome muttered out, weakly. "You have to save Inuyasha."

"Kagome," Inuyasha began, "I will not accept Myoga's help. It is you that I wish him to save."

"But Inuyasha," she began to protest. But the look he was giving her took all her words away.

"Very well, then," Myoga solemnly said, before he went over to Kagome. He was able to suck all the venom out. He then went to lay in the corner, feeling sickly full. Kagome started struggling to get up when he protested for her to lie back down. Inuyasha also insisted that she stay still and rest, but Kagome stubbornly ignored them and pulled herself up. "I'm fine!" she said, "I want to take care of Inuyasha." Inuyasha gave a weak smile at that.

"Oh Inuyasha, I'm so sorry."

"Don't be Kagome, you were right. I should have just trusted you with my secret. Then none of this would have happened."

"Is that why you insisted on being the one to keep the venom? Because of guilt?"

"Don't you know, Kagome? You have to know why I could never let anything happen to you. Even if it meant sacrificing my own life."

Kagome was speechless, completely confused by what he was inferring. He had made it clear that he hated her. How could it be possible that he had feelings for her? It just didn't make sense, they can't both be true.

"Kagome?" he interrupted her thoughts. "Will you lend me your lap?"

"Uh, sure."

She gently lifted him and placed his head in her lap. She hoped this would be more comfortable for him. "There, is that better?" she asked.

"Yes… you smell good."

"Huh?! Wait a minute. You said you hated my sent."

"Well, I was lying"

*So, is he saying he really doesn't hate me?* Kagome wondered. *But then why the act? Why would he hide how he really feels? What is he so afraid of? Doesn't he know how I feel? How could he, it's not like I ever told him…*

"Kagome, can I ask you for one more thing?"

"Anything," she answered.

"I, I was wondering, if I could have a kiss from you."

Kagome felt her stomach fill with butterflies from the shock and excitement his words brought. This is not what Kagome was expecting. Even after everything he'd already done and said tonight, this was by far the most vulnerable Inuyasha had ever felt. Without saying anything, Kagome put her arms under Inuyasha's head and his back and lifted him up to her. She held him against her chest as she leaned her head down so that her lips could meet his. Suddenly, there was no one else in the room. The others might as well not existed, and neither did the rest of the world. For in this moment, there was nothing except the two of them and their lips connecting them together, body and soul. Inuyasha had to use all the strength he had left to kiss her back, but it was a long, beautiful kiss. It ended when Kagome began to feel his lips going lifeless.

If possible, Kagome's tears started falling even faster. She laid his head back in her lap, and started stroking his hair gently in a tender gesture. He smiled up at her one last time before he had to shut his eyes, suddenly feeling very sick from the venom. He knew he wouldn't be making out of here tonight, but he didn't seem to care. Not as long as Kagome was going to be okay. Before his heart went still and his breathing stopped, Kagome heard him whisper something that sounded like "I love you".

When the spider head busted down the door, Kagome and the others ran past him as quickly as they could. They managed to escape just in time, but in order to do so they had to leave Inuyasha's body behind. Earlier, after Kagome had taken Inuyasha's head in between her hands and had moved him off her lap and gently laid his head on the floor, she'd leaned down and given him one last kiss. She could feel the tears falling off her checks and onto his face as she'd pressed her lips against his already colder ones. She thought to herself that if he was still here, he would've been complaining about her being such a crybaby and getting him all wet. She'd left his lips and started to lay gentle kisses beside his mouth, then up his cheek until she'd gotten to his ear, where she'd stopped and softly whispered, "I love you too, Inuyasha. I promise I'll never forget you." 

After that night, Kagome returned home to her present time. She only returned to the feudal era every so often to check on Shippo and Lady Kyade. Without Inuyasha's help, she no longer carded to search for the jewel shards. Lady Kyade told her of a strange monk and a demon slayer who had met up and began searching for the jewel shards together, while hunting down a demon who went by the name Naraka. With Kagome back in her own time, Kikyo was able to be fully resurrected. In the end, it was her who was able to purify the jewel and vanish it from existence.

Kagome sometimes wondered if she should have stayed and tried to get the completed jewel before it was destroyed. Then she could have wished for Inuyasha back. But when it came down to it, she knew that would've been selfish of her, and that using the jewel on a selfish wish would've only ended badly.

So Kagome lived out her life in her own time with her family. She buried herself in her school work for a distraction. She even graduated top of her class, but it meant nothing to her. Life no longer seemed to have any meaning at all. She went on to graduate high school, then college with top marks. She attended med school and became a doctor, hoping that healing people would give her sense of purpose. She worked at the same hospital as Hojo, and they eventually began dating. He even proposed to her, but, in the end, she knew that she could never be happy settling for a man she didn't love. She retired early and moved back home to take over the family shrine after her grandfather had passed and her mom had become too old to live alone. Sota had long before moved out and gotten married.

So, Kagome lived out her life going through the motions, depression always looming over her. The only thing she looked forward to were the picnics she had under the tree where she had first met Inuyasha. There was a very old memorial there for him that had been erected back in the feudal era. About fifty years had passed since Inuyasha died, when Sota came over to visit and found Kagome lying against that tree, stone cold. She had a smile on her face when she passed, from the knowledge that she would soon be reunited with the one she loved.


End file.
